A web widget is a small software program that can be installed on a web page, website, blog and profile on social media sites by an end user. Widgets are generally created on platforms such as DHTML, JavaScript, and Adobe Flash. Different widgets you may encounter are buttons, dialog boxes, pop-up windows, selection boxes, windows, toggle switches and forms. You can put a widget on your social media profile by copying and pasting that code into your profile. Other terms for widgets are gadgets, badge, module, and snippet.
Major types of widgets are: Desktop widgets, personal web widgets, public web widgets, mobile web widgets.
Desktop Widget:
A desktop widget is a small program designed to run on your desktop. They provide specific information to the user that can be functional. If a computer runs on windows operating system, you can use widget engine and then choose widgets from a number of widgets and install it on your desktop.
An example of common type of widget for desktop is yahoo widgets. You need to download the widget installer and browse yahoo widgets directory and freely use them on your desktop. Other popular widget engines include Dashboard, Google desktop, Microsoft gadgets and spring widgets.
Web Widgets:
Personal web widgets: Users post the widgets on their personal home pages like myYahoo, iGoogle. Widget will be visible on users customized page such as users browser start page each time when the user is online. It can be viewed only by the user who installs it.
Public web widgets:
A web widget is a piece of code where a user can embed a widget publicly on social networking sites, blogs, online communities, etc. These can be seen by many people and the user can also install on multiple sites. Widgetbox is a widget directory that enables a user to search for a specific type of widget, customize it for own use and then copy, paste the code on your own web pages. Some web widgets include news headlines, games, eBay trackers, weather report widgets.
Mobile Widgets:
These are small applications designed to run on mobile phones. They are executed on run time environment and treated as native applications. Sometimes a widget engine is required to choose the widget and sometimes you can point your mobile browser to a special URL to access the widget. JavaScript, iframe and flash are three types of web widgets that can be fetched through HTTP resource request.
The benefit of widget is they constantly provide updated content on your websites and help in search engine optimization of your websites. They are simple and easy to use, just copy the code of widgets and paste it onto your site. Increases traffic on your website.
